This is a commentary written in response to an article published in Surgical Neurology International and penned by the retiring neurosurgeon Dr. Clinton Frederick Miller that was highly critical of American medicine. He opines that a major overhaul, or rather overturn, of the American health care is necessary to correct the myriad of alleged abuses he perceives in the system. In his quest for reform, Dr. Miller also made a pitch toward supporting ObamaCare as a stepping stone in the implementation of socialized medicine in the US.[17]

I have visited 70 countries all over the world. There is no healthcare system that provides the excellence that the USA system does. Much of what you read in the press is not true.(2) Virtually everyone in the USA can obtain healthcare; for those who are “involuntarily uninsured” the number is near 4% not the 47% that everyone quotes.(2,11) I would fully support some system to provide care for the involuntarily uninsured in any system or country.

All the information that has come to light regarding the deliberations, inappropriate and shocking revelations, of the secret Health Care Task Force of President Bill and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton thanks to the lawsuit, AAPS v.

But what events have led us to this deplorable state of affairs with American medicine headed inexorably in the wrong direction—down the path of welfarism, collectivism, and corporatism? To answer this loaded and troublesome question, perhaps one should ponder the words of the politician par excellence, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who once admitted, “Nothing just happens in politics. If something happens, you can be sure it was planned that way.” So, in our search for answers, let us glean and ponder the changes ushered in the 1960s by the Great Society of President Lyndon B.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), more commonly referred to as ObamaCare, has become one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled, 111th U.S. Congress during President Obama’s administration.

In a recent letter to the editor published in my local newspaper, the Macon Telegraph (9/16/11), Jack Bernard, a self-described "Republican,” retired health care executive, was "disconcerted by the ideological free market rigidity” that he observed during a debate by the Republican presidential candidates concerning “the health care reform question.”

Owing entirely to the visionary compassion of the Dear Leader and his party, the same regime that has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, that poured trillions of dollars into the coffers of Wall Street kleptocrats, that brought its unique healing touch to victims of the post-Katrina disaster in New Orleans, and that routinely commits similar acts of divine charity, will now relieve you of the burden of making your own health care decisions.

During President Clinton's first term, a vigorous offensive was launched under the name "Health Security Act of 1993," the goal of which was to deliver into the hands of the federal government the entire health care system of the United States. Fortunately, that undertaking was defeated, thanks to the resistance of the American people who made it clear that they did not want the central government exercising such comprehensive dominion over something so crucial as health care. However, though our adversaries appeared to fall back in defeat, we see in Dr.

Warning! If you have high blood pressure, consult your physician before reading Medical Warrior. Dr. Miguel Faria writes with such fervor and conviction about the looming dangers of a health-care system dominated by big government, big business, and big labor that people with medical problems may wish to read something far less provocative.

Very few American adults now recall the high status once enjoyed by physicians in this land. They did not, of course, accomplish this on their own: their forbears in Europe spent generations at the task. The climb was not easy, for the aristocracy had all the weapons and the power and the prestige and the positions. But the French Revolution began the dislodging of the aristocrats from the heights. The proverbial bad wind, in other words, did blow some good. It dislodged the iron grip of hereditary privilege, and created gaps through which rising talents did climb aloft.

In A.D. 1212, a Children's Crusade was formed allegedly to rescue the Holy Sepulcher. Instead, the children were lured and sold into slavery by unscrupulous and cruel traders. Thousands of innocent children died of hunger and disease and from their brutal ordeal. It is said that the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who led the children by the tune of his pipe, derives from this dreadful affair.

It was apparent to both politicians and informed observers at the outset that Canada's compulsory socialized medicine scheme (now going on 42 years since the first tentative political steps were taken) would have enormous political appeal.

In this essay, I propose to 'tour' the subject of privacy in our civilization, its importance and its pending destruction: Why does privacy matter? What should we expect from its destruction? Finally, does privacy in medical matters have a special significance? I will draw the conclusions that privacy is an extension of property rights; that respect for privacy, a bourgeois concept, is inherent in the success of our civilization and necessary for a thriving middle class. A thriving middle class represents the essence of Western civilization.

Socialized medicine has produced cowering medical bureaucrats who have to turn to capitalist doctors for help. Boris Yeltsin's heart operation and treatment demonstrate how this happens. But rational, independent doctors are now also vanishing from American medicine, as socialism threatens to destroy what was once among the most noble and free professions in this country.

Describing what is currently happening in Washington State can be categorized as the good, the bad, and the ugly. First the not so good news: If you're in a state bordering with our neighbors to the north it doesn't take much effort to determine that the single payer (Medicare) system of Canada is faltering in a number of areas. Physicians are leaving Canada in droves and settling in many northern locations like Bellingham, Washington.

Late last year, in another assault on the truth, President Clinton claimed the rising number of uninsured is due to Congress' failure in 1993 to pass his plan for nationalizing health care.(1) Contrary to his predictable spin, the growing national population of uninsured citizens is a cancer clearly identifiable at the state level with Washington State becoming a textbook case for legislators and single-payer advocates. Make no mistake about this: it is not because state legislators failed to implement universal health care, but precisely because they did!

Despite the assurances by managed care proponents that health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other forms of managed care would solve the duel problem of spiraling health care costs and the rising number of the uninsured, that has not been the case. Public-private partnerships and managed care health initiatives which have been promoting the herding of workers and Medicaid and Medicare patients into HMOs have likewise failed to alleviate those problems, at least for the long haul.

One of the biggest myths being propogated today is the absurd notion that "people can't see a doctor without having insurance." The truth is office visits are relatively cheap, well within the means of most people. The problem is most people don't budget anything for their annual medical care. And, then when a problem arises, any expense greater than zero "isn't in the budget."

Like a ghoul from George Romero's classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead, the single-payer system keeps coming back, resurrected by collectivist politicians. This has particularly been the case in Washington State where it seems to come back year after year. Determined to once again shoot the ghoul in the head, Thomas J. Mueller, M.D., an AAPS member in that state, submitted the following resolution to the Washington State Medical Association House of Delegates.

The State of Oregon has an initiative on the ballot, "Health Care for All Oregonians," that is causing proponents and opponents to line up. The measure, if it passes, would establish a taxpayer-subsidized single payer system of medical care --- fully socialized medicine in Oregon.

We are at war --- an unconventional war. I am not referring to our nation's war against the terrorists --- no. I am referring to war as described by Webster as being in a state of forceful opposition. It has been carried on for a number of years, slowly, craftily and by surreptitious incrementalism with such success that most doctors fail to realize its true origins or the sources of its present strength.

The final word from medical moguls and other pundits is coming out in full force on health care and medical journalism: Americans must be prepared, from the top down, to accept drastic medical and health care rationing. Why? Because "the establishment of the rational allocation of finite resources" (translate: the extensive rationing of medical services) will be desperately needed, if universal coverage, socialized ObamaCare medicine is to have a chance to work in this country.